[431. {434.}1 Ñāṇathavika2]

I saw the Ultimate Biped,
shining like a dinner-plate tree,3
blazing forth like a tree of lamps,
glittering as though [made of] gold. (1) [4664]

Putting aside [my] water-pot,4
[my] robes of bark and [my] ewer,5
placing deer-hide on one shoulder,
I [then] praised [him,] the Best Buddha: (2) [4665]

“Great Sage, shedding6 the knowledge-light,7
which dispels confusion-darkness
[produced by] the delusion-web,
you’re the One who has Crossed Over. (3) [4666]

O Unexcelled One,8 you lift up
this world in its entirety;9
there is not in its whole extent10
a simile11 for your knowledge. (4) [4667]

Due to that knowledge, the Buddha12
is known as13 “the Omniscient One.”14
Great Hero, I’m worshipping him,
the Unobstructed,15 All-Knower.”16 (5) [4668]

In the hundred thousand aeons
since I praised the Best of Buddhas,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of praising knowledge. (6) [4669]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (7) [4670]

Being in Best Buddha’s presence
was a very good thing for me.
The three knowledges are attained;
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (8) [4671]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (9) [4672]

Thus indeed Venerable Ñāṇathavika Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Ñāṇathavika Thera is finished.

  1. Apadāna numbers provided in {fancy brackets} correspond to the BJTS edition, which contains more individual poems than does the PTS edition dictating the main numbering of this translation.↩

  2. “Knowledge-Praiser”↩

  3. kaṇṇikāra, kaṇikāra = Sinhala kinihiriya, Pterospermum acerifolium, produces a brilliant mass of yellow flowers; Engl. a.k.a. karnikar, bayur tree, maple-leaf bayur, caniyar (now archaic?), dinner-plate tree; Bodhi tree of Siddhattha Buddha.↩

  4. kamaṇḍaluŋ, a long-spouted jar for carrying water used by non-Buddhist ascetics↩

  5. kuṇḍikaŋ, also a pot used for water, sometimes synonymous with a kamaṇḍalu but here distinguished as a separate type.↩

  6. dassayitvā, lit., “having shown” “havig displayed” “having diffused”↩

  7. reading ñāṇālokaṃ with BJTS for PTS ñāṇalokaŋ (“the world of knowledge”)↩

  8. reading anuttara (voc.) with BJTS for PTS anuttaraŋ (acc.). The BJTS reading has the adjective modify “you” (Buddha); the PTS reading has it modify “world”↩

  9. sabbāvantaŋ, fr. sabbāvant, “all, entire;” BJTS gloss siyalu sattvayan sahita (“with all its creatures”)↩

  10. yāvatā ccha gato gati, lit., “as far as going goes,” BJTS Sinh. gloss yāmtāk da ētāk (“however far, to that extent”)↩

  11. upamā n’atthi, “analogy” “metaphor” “likeness”↩

  12. reading buddho with BJTS for PTS bhotvā (= hutvā ?)↩

  13. pavuccchchati, lit., “is called” “is said to be” “is pronounced”↩

  14. sabbaññū ti↩

  15. reading anāvaraṃ with BJTS (and PTS alt.) for PTS anāsavaŋ (“Undefiled”)↩

  16. sabbaññutaŋ↩